To Professor, with Love (Forbidden Men #2)(51)

Easier said than done.

He was the first thing I saw. Being a Tuesday evening, the place was a lot less crowded than it had been the last time I’d been here. So I had a straight shot, wide-open view to the bar in the back. Blue fluorescent lights sprayed down on his dark hair, and the black cloth of his T-shirt looked especially nice stretching across his wide, thick shoulders.

A pinch in my chest had me sucking in a breath. He was busy, absorbed in his work, setting up a row of shots. His hands were fluid and graceful as he flipped over each glass with adept speed and then poured his way down the line. Everything about him was so freaking captivating. When he sprawled in his seat during class, doodling in his notebook with lazy strokes as if he wasn’t paying attention to a thing I taught. When he directed his team on the field, calling plays and pointing out commands to his teammates. And definitely when he played Tom Cruise from Cocktail.

My parents would disown me if they knew how much I loved eighties movies. But I didn’t care. I’d always had a thing for bartenders because of that one. I liked them almost as much as I’d been drawn to football players.

This was bad; he sucked me in way too easily. I should go. He hadn’t seen me come in. I still had a chance to escape before he noticed I’d turned into a total creeper. But, nope, I didn’t budge.

A waitress approached me and tried to take my order, but I waved her off with a smile and shake of my head. And returned to my stalking.

Noel Gamble really was a sight to behold. As he handled his own customers, he still had time to pause and help the other bartender mix his drinks correctly.

When the flow of traffic to the bar died off, I was drawn closer. I nibbled on the corner of my lip, telling myself to stay back, but yeah, that didn’t work out so well. I kept drifting toward the light. Except another woman passing by the other side of the bar caught Noel’s attention. He glanced briefly at her, only to do a double take.

Jealousy slapped me right across the face. It was so easy for him to notice other women. I obviously didn’t mean as much to him as he’d made it sound in his essay.

But then his eyes narrowed on her. “Hey, Jess,” he called, tipping up his chin as he tried to catch her attention.

She ignored him and kept walking, entering a hall in the corner and disappearing down it.

Ripping off the drying towel he had slung over his shoulder, he slapped it against the bar and growled, “I’ll be right back. You got the bar okay?”

The dark-haired guy working with him lifted his face in surprise. “Umm…”

“Thanks,” Noel called, not even glancing at his coworker as he dodged out the back side of the counter and streaked into the hall in hot pursuit of the woman.

Who was she? How well did he know her? How much of his naked body has she seen?

All questions I had no right or business asking, even as they repeated through my head with a stupid obsession I couldn’t turn off.

Since I’d already given in to so much of my inner stalker tonight, I figured it couldn’t hurt to give in to a little more. I wandered to the opening of the hall, trying to appear as casual and nonchalant as possible, and was rewarded to learn he hadn’t gone very far down. Slapping open the first door on the left side, he barged inside what looked like an office from the brief glimpse and angle I saw of a filing cabinet.

He left the door wide open and stopped in the threshold, jamming his hands to his hips, his shoulders braced with anger. “Nice to see you, Jessie.” Clipped with sarcasm, his voice floated back to me perfectly. “What’s it been? Two weeks? Yeah, that sounds about right, since I’ve worked here every f*cking night since then and haven’t seen you at all.”

“What’s this?” The woman’s voice came through a little more muffled, but I could still hear her clearly enough. “The employee’s actually lecturing the boss?”

He gave a hard laugh. “Boss? That’s funny. Because from what I can tell, we haven’t had a damn boss since your dad’s been here.”

“Are you trying to piss me off, Gamble?”

“You know what, let me tell you what’s been going on here since you last decided to grace us with your presence, and you tell me which one of us has the right to be pissed off? Last week, we ran out of our most popular lager, but don’t worry.” He lifted his hands as if to ease her panic. “I reordered more. You’re welcome. But they shipped us the wrong batch, so I had to straighten out that clusterf*ck. You’re welcome. Then, the fire marshal stopped by. Our quarterly inspection was overdue, so all your dedicated employees worked our asses off to make sure everything was kosher for the inspection we had yesterday. Which you’re welcome for…again. Next, Tansy was in a car accident and broke her leg. She’s one of your best servers, by the way, since I’m sure you have no clue. But yeah, don’t worry about that. I called every girl who works the floor and we rearranged things until all of Tansy’s shifts are covered for the next six weeks, which, oh yeah, you’re welcome for that too. And I made an order for all the other liquors we’re running low on.”

He paused before nodding and adding one last, slow, taunting, “You’re welcome.”

Instead of gushing out an apology or thanking him for everything he’d done, his boss only snorted. “If you came to tell me all the issues have been handled, then what the hell are you whining about?”